Britain’s
national
broadcaster
will
not
be
cutting
a
check
to
America’s
president,
thankyouverymuch.
Auntie
Beeb
has
closed
the
cupboard
and
will
not
be
doling
out
biscuits
to
the
naughty
tyke
in
chief.
After
reading
his
lawyer’s
bumptious
demand
letter
that
it
fork
over
English
taxpayer
dollars,
the
BBC
told
Trump
to
do
one.
The
kerfuffle
is
the
result
of
a
documentary
aired
more
than
a
year
ago
entitled
“Trump:
A
Second
Chance?”
in
which
footage
of
Trump’s
infamous
January
6
speech
was
edited
to
make
it
appear
that
he
told
his
supporters
to
walk
down
to
the
Capitol
and
fight.
Which
they
did!
But
in
fact
the
12-second
clip
was
a
pastiche
of
two
parts
of
the
speech
more
than
50
minutes
apart.
The
clip
was
surfaced
by
a
conservative
critic
of
the
BBC
as
part
of
a
memo
listing
several
culture
war
grievances,
including
bias
in
favor
of
trans
people
and
immigrants
and
against
Israel.
It
ignited
a
feeding
frenzy
of
right-wing
attack
dogs
which
has
already
claimed
the
scalps
of
the
BBC’s
two
top
officers.
It
also
summoned
the
American
president,
like
Beetlejuice
crossed
with
Paulie
Walnuts.
Trump’s
lawyer
lightly
edited
his
standard
presidential
shakedown
letter
and
fired
off
a
nastygram
(h/t
Politico)
to
BBC
Chair
Samir
Shah
demanding
that
he
“immediately
retract
the
false,
defamatory,
disparaging,
and
inflammatory
statements
made
about
President
Trump”
or
face
litigation
over
the
“overwhelming
financial
and
reputational
harm
that
the
BBC
has
caused
him
to
suffer.”
“If
the
BBC
does
not
comply
with
the
above
by
November
14,
2025,
at
5:00
p.m.
EST,
President
Trump
will
be
left
with
no
alternative
but
to
enforce
his
legal
and
equitable
rights,
all
of
which
are
expressly
reserved
and
are
not
waived,
including
by
filing
legal
action
for
no
less
than
$1,000,000,000
(One
Billion
Dollars)
in
damages,”
he
blustered.
“The
BBC
is
on
notice.
PLEASE
GOVERN
YOURSELF
ACCORDINGLY.”
How
Brito
calculated
the
damages
figure
for
a
broadcast
Trump
never
heard
about
until
a
week
ago
is
left
as
an
exercise
for
the
reader.
The
BBC
reports
that
Shah
sent
a
personal
apology
to
the
president
and
a
letter
to
Brito’s
declining
his
invitation
to
pay
tribute
to
America’s
King
George.
The
letter
laid
out
a
non-exhaustive
list
of
reasons
the
lawsuit
is
DOA,
even
if
the
president’s
home
state
of
Florida
has
a
two-year
statute
of
limitations
on
defamation:
First
it
says
the
BBC
did
not
have
the
rights
to,
and
did
not,
distribute
the
Panorama
episode
on
its
US
channels.When
the
documentary
was
available
on
BBC
iPlayer,
it
was
restricted
to
viewers
in
the
UK.Secondly,
it
says
the
documentary
did
not
cause
Trump
harm,
as
he
was
re-elected
shortly
after.Thirdly,
it
says
the
clip
was
not
designed
to
mislead,
but
just
to
shorten
a
long
speech,
and
that
the
edit
was
not
done
with
malice.Fourthly,
it
says
the
clip
was
never
meant
to
be
considered
in
isolation.
Rather,
it
was
12
seconds
within
an
hour-long
programme,
which
also
contained
lots
of
voices
in
support
of
Trump.Finally,
an
opinion
on
a
matter
of
public
concern
and
political
speech
is
heavily
protected
under
defamation
laws
in
the
US.
But
other
than
that,
well
done,
you!
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.